You don't need to drop thousands of dollars to score wood-fired pizza in your own backyard. All you need is a standard-issue kettle grill and one special piece of gear.

This summer, my life as a home cook changed forever. That's because, for the last few months, I've been relentlessly testing, tinkering, and improving my at-home wood-fired pizza game. No, not the kind of DIY pie you stick on an inverted backing sheet and toss into an oven cranked as hot as it can possibly go. I'm not even talking about tricking out your oven with a pizza stone or fancy baking steel.

I've cracked the code on making real wood-fired pizza at home, no compromises required.

I'll get this out of the way up front: Achieving this level of greatness demands a bit of special equipment. Namely, the KettlePizza grill attachment. For less than $200, the kit transforms any standard kettle grill into a flaming-hot, pizza-making machine. It works by elevating the grill's lid thanks to a thin cylinder of metal with a slot cut out of one side to slip pizzas in. I may sound like a raving fanboy, but the KettlePizza has consistently delivered results on par with custom-built wood-fire outdoor pizza ovens that cost thousands of dollars. The thing is so brilliantly simple that, if you're especially handy, you could likely MacGyver one together yourself. But if you're like me, you'd rather get straight to, you know, actually making pizza.

So, rule number one: Get your grill in order. Below are the others keys to pizza success that I've developed over the past few months of testing (and relentless pizza-eating).

YOU MUST USE WOOD FOR A WOOD-FIRED PIZZA

The issue with most lackluster homemade pizza is simply a matter of the oven or grill not being hot enough. Whether you crank your oven to the max or use plenty of blazing-hot charcoal in your grill, you'll only be hovering around 500°F. Enter wood. Using logs in addition to charcoal is the only way to get your grill to the coveted 800°F mark, the zone where real pizza magic and bubbly, charred crusts happen.

Simply stack a chimney starter worth of lit, lightly ashed-over coals on one side of the grill and stack two logs on top. Within a couple of minutes, fire will engulf the logs and you'll have enough heat to make several pies. Keep an eye on the temperature gauge and add more logs as needed to maintain ideal pizza-making temperature.

DOUGH IS IMPORTANT (BUT DON'T DISMISS THE STORE-BOUGHT STUFF)

Yes, this recipe for No-Knead Pizza Dough is great (and can be made ahead and frozen). But when I was getting my sea legs as an at-home pizza enthusiast, I found store-bought dough from Fresh Direct to be remarkably good and very easy to work with, too. Up to you.

BUILD YOUR PIE DIRECTLY ON THE PIZZA PEEL

Rather than clumsily attempting to transfer your toppings-covered pie from a cutting board to a pizza peel, start by doing your building directly on the peel. Make sure to cover the surface of the peel with flour or cornmeal before setting down your dough in order to prevent sticking, adding more throughout the toppings process as needed.

TOP SPARINGLY

Skip the recipes for tomato sauce or fancy jarred stuff and keep thing simple. Crack open a can of whole, peeled tomatoes, crush them with your hands, and scatter them across the surface of your dough. And whether it's tomatoes, thinly sliced mushrooms, or torn strands of fresh mozzarella cheese (or a handful of shredded supermarket mozz), add less than you think you should. Over-topping a pie can weigh things down and lead to soggy crust. Oh, and don't forget to add salt and a quick drizzle of olive oil to your pie before its trip into the fire.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

Once you load your pizza onto the pizza stone in the grill, things happen very, very quickly. After 60-90 seconds, you'll begin to see charring on the far side of the pizza, closest to the flames. Quickly turn the pie 180° (all-metal grill tongs are perfect for this if you haven't gotten the hang of turning pizza with the pizza peel) to ensure even charring. Wait another 60-90 seconds. When the crust is verging on charred all the way around the edge, use your pizza peel to lift the pizza off the stone and hold it to the top of the lid, aka "the dome," where all of the radiant heat collects during the cooking process. After about 30 seconds, the top of your pizza will be bubbling and browned in spots.

And that's it. With a bit of practice, you'll be making more pizza than you can eat—my wife can attest to this—and have a whole host of new friends willing to come over to "catch up" at a moment's notice.

So, get your grill outfitted and try the recipe for my favorite pizza down below. Just don't blame us if you can't stomach the thought of ordering delivery pizza ever again.